“Oh, excuse me. I’m Steven. Steven Champagne. I’m a good friend of Bart’s. I live just a couple of houses over.”
“Sir, do you mind if I ask—if you live a couple of places over, why are you sleeping here in Mr. Whitaker’s townhome?”
“Bart let me move in after his mother and brother were killed,” Steven answered. He was keeping his cool much better than he thought he would be able to when this inevitable day came. “I guess that’s why you guys are here, to find out who killed Bart’s family? I still can’t believe it happened.” Steven invited the detectives to have a seat on the couch in the living room.
Detective Slot dismissed any notion of engaging in small talk. Instead, he got right down to business. “Mr. Champagne, are you friends with Bart Whitaker?”
“Yes, sir. I work under Bart at the Bentwater Country Club, as well as living two doors down from him.”
“Where were you on the night of the murders?”
Steven lied and told the detectives he was “out at a bar” with “a friend from work” named Patrick. He just hoped the detectives did not decide to call up Patrick to verify his whereabouts that night.
“Very good, sir,” Detective Slot thanked him. The three men continued to talk for nearly two hours. However, Steven became less nervous the longer he spoke with the men. They obviously had no idea who he was, and it was apparent to him that they did not consider him to be a suspect. They just asked him about his job, and mainly about anything he might have seen or heard about on or around December 10. Steven actually considered both detectives to be quite friendly toward him.
The rest of the time was spent mainly talking about Bart. Steven did not believe he gave up any valuable information on his friend. Of course, why would he? Giving up Bart would be like injecting the needle into his own arm. If Bart was willing to hurt Steven or Steven’s mother for not even participating in the murder scheme, he had no doubt whatsoever that Bart wouldn’t hesitate to rat him out to the police, given the chance. Steven hoped he never had to find out.
January 14, 2004
Harbour Town
Willis, Texas
One week later, Steven was suddenly jolted out of his slumber by the sound of his telephone. He picked it up and answered, “Hello?” He was barely coherent.
“Steven, it’s Chris,” he heard on the other end of the line. He had not spoken to Chris since the night after the murders.
“What’s going on, man?” Steven asked. He was nervous and could tell his friend was scared. “What’s wrong with you?”
“The cops were here!” Chris seemed terrified. “They think I’m involved in it, Steven. I think they know I shot Bart’s mother and brother. I don’t know how they know, but I think they know!”
For the first time since the murders, Steven was also terrified. It had all seemed a bit too surreal to him. Hearing the panic in Chris’s voice raised the stakes for him. If the police were onto Chris, it would only be a matter of time before they set their sights on him.
“Chris, calm down. Tell me what happened.”
“They were here, man! Two detectives just left my place. I don’t know. I think they know what’s going on, but they aren’t really saying. But I think they know I was directly involved.”
Steven attempted to calm Chris down and told him he was going to call Bart and see what he wanted to do. Bart told Steven to get Chris up to Sugar Land so the three of them could talk about what was going on, and how to deal with the police officers.
Steven called Chris back, and after much cajoling, he convinced Chris to get out of his parents’ house and come visit them. Chris attempted to beg off because he claimed he did not have enough money for gas to make the jaunt, but eventually he relented and drove to Sugar Land. Once he arrived, Bart suggested that they go to the movie theater and talk during a screening of the three-and-a-half-hour fantasy epic Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Bart figured the length of the film would give them plenty of time to deal with their current problem of the police.
Bart made sure both Steven and Chris made it to the movie theater to discuss what had transpired between the cops and Chris. He told Steven that they were there to “support” Chris through the difficult time. Of course, Bart was mainly concerned that Chris would crack and let loose the truth as to all of their involvement in the double murder. Bart could sense that Chris was “getting weak,” and he wanted to put an end to it immediately.
The three young men bought their tickets and took their places near the back of the large screening room. As the first reel of the film began to unspool, Bart scooted Chris over a couple of seats away from Steven so they could be closer to the corner. Bart did not notice the man sitting directly behind them, an undercover police officer.
Steven turned his attention to the Peter Jackson–directed spectacle of Hobbits, Orcs, and Mordor as Bart attempted to calm Chris down. Steven felt secluded away from his friends, plus he had a nagging suspicion about the man sitting behind them. He believed they had been followed through Sugar Land and into the theater. He was starting to get nervous, as he believed the so-called filmgoer was actually an undercover police officer. He hoped to God that Bart and Chris were not talking about the actual murders.
After the movie ended, the three friends took off from the theater. Steven checked out Chris to see if he was cool. Apparently, whatever Bart said to him did the trick; he no longer seemed freaked out. Furthermore, the man sitting behind them did not follow them outside the building, so Steven could breathe a bit easier.
January 21, 2004
Harbour Town
Willis, Texas
Two weeks after their first encounter, Sugar Land detectives Marshall Slot and Glen White paid Steven Champagne a second visit, again at Bart’s townhome. Unlike the previous visit, the detectives arrived in the evening, and they did not appear to be as nice as they had been the first time around.
The detectives began to go through the same set of questions they had asked Steven previously: Where did he work? How did he know Bart? What was he doing on the night of the murders? Steven answered the questions exactly the same way he had two weeks prior, including the information about going out to a bar the night of the murders with his friend Patrick.
“We spoke with Patrick,” Detective Slot informed Steven. The young man worried that his Adam’s apple might come bursting through his throat, he gulped so hard. “He said that the two of you did not go out together on December tenth.”
Steven did not respond.
“Why would he say that to us, if it weren’t true, Steven?” Slot asked.
“I have no idea why he would lie to you,” Steven calmly replied. “Maybe he just got the days confused.”
“No, Steven. He seemed very adamant that the two of you did not go out together that night.”
“I don’t know what to tell you, Detective,” Steven replied, seemingly nonplussed.
“Steven, is there something you want to tell us? I’m sure it will make you feel a lot better to get this off your chest.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, Detective.” Steven remained calm and did not crack under pressure.
Detective White leaned in toward the young man. “C’mon, Steven. We know what happened that night. Bart put you up to it, didn’t he?”
“What are you guys talking about?” Steven continued to play ignorant.
“The murders, Steven. Tricia Whitaker. Kevin Whitaker. Bart’s family. He put you up to this, didn’t he?” Detective Slot continued the interrogation.
“Wait a second.” Steven acted stunned at their insinuations. “You guys think I was involved in killing Bart’s mom and brother. That’s insane.”
“Is it?” Detective White countered.
“Of course, it’s insane. I cannot believe you guys would try to pin something like that on me.”
“C’mon, Steven. I know you want to confess and get it off your chest. It’s got to be eating at you every day,” Detective Slot persisted.
“I’m sorry, Detectives, but I am going to have to ask you to leave my house,” Steven boldly commanded. “I had absolutely nothing to do with the Whitaker murders, and I want you off the property now.”
“Okay, Steven,” Detective Slot responded. “But you think about it and give us a call if you decide to change your mind.” The detectives nodded, turned around, and exited the premises.
Steven closed the door behind the men. He could not let out a yelp of anxiety that he so desperately needed to release.
31
February 2004
T.G.I. Friday’s
Lake Woodlands Drive
The Woodlands, Texas
Bart invited Steven out to dinner at a nearby T.G.I. Friday’s. Steven correctly assumed Bart was checking up on him to make sure he would not spill the beans. He was right.
“So, how are you doing?” Bart asked with a sly smile.
“I’m doing all right. How ’bout you, Bart?”
“All things considered, I’m doing pretty good.” Bart took a menu from between the salt and pepper shakers on the table and began to peruse it. Once he knew what he wanted for dinner, and confirmed that Steven was ready, he motioned to the waitress to come take their order. After she left, Bart started in with a little chitchat.
It was not long before the conversation turned to the overriding issue in both men’s lives: the murders.
“I can’t believe Chris didn’t take out my dad,” Bart bemoaned.
Steven simply nodded. He did not want to have this conversation in a restaurant, but he could tell Bart was determined to do so.
“He was at point-blank range. How do you not kill somebody who’s standing directly in front of you, and you shoot them?” he asked incredulously.
“I don’t know,” Steven quietly answered.
“I don’t know, either.” Bart chuckled at the thought. “Less than a foot away from him, and he doesn’t die. Unbelievable.”
Bart took a sip from the water that the waitress had brought to their table. “Of course, Chris’s failure to complete the job pretty much screws everything up. You understand that, don’t you?”
“I figured as much,” Steven responded.
“There’s no way we can collect on the life insurance money, since my dad didn’t die.”
“Yep,” Steven muttered.
“We are going to have to do something about that,” Bart reasoned in his head and spoke out loud.
“What are you talking about, Bart?” Steven wanted to know.
“I think you know.”
“What?”
“We’ve got to finish what Chris couldn’t,” Bart stated emphatically.
Steven began to get paranoid again. He just knew Bart was going to say something about the murders (or even more murders) loud enough to where some of the other customers in the restaurant could overhear them. “Bart, keep your voice down, man. I don’t want anyone to know what the hell happened.”
Bart smiled at him. A mischievous grin flashed as he lowered his voice, only slightly. “I need to make a plan so we can deal with my dad.”
“Bart, you’re fucking crazy,” Steven scolded his friend. “There is no way you can make a foolproof plan to kill your dad. And even if you were able to pull it off, everyone would suspect you. I mean, c’mon, man, it would be too damn obvious. To everyone.”
“I know it would look fishy, but I feel like I could pull it off again, and be sure that he dies this time,” Bart answered.
“No, man. No. No, I don’t want anything to do with this anymore, Bart,” Steven pleaded.
“What do you mean?” Bart seemed genuinely surprised, if not a bit hurt by Steven’s reaction.
“I don’t want any part in killing your dad,” Steven declared.
Bart paused momentarily and looked Steven directly in the eyes, as if to size him up, right then and there, to determine if his friend still had his manhood intact. Steven shifted in his seat, visibly uncomfortable. Bart nodded and said to Steven, “We’ve got more work to do.”
It was work that was never completed. Bart did not pursue the follow-up murder of his father.
32
January to March 2004
Adam Hipp knew he needed to do something to rectify his situation. A big part of him felt horrible for what had happened to Tricia and Kevin Whitaker. He felt that if only he had spoken up years ago, their deaths might have been prevented. He also felt horrible that his previous actions and omissions might leave him in a major bind, and he could possibly face some serious jail time of his own for acting as an accomplice in a conspiracy to commit murder. He was not sure where he stood legally, but he knew, morally, he was nearly bankrupt. He wanted to make amends in some way, shape, or form.
Hipp believed the only way he could make a difference now was to help the Sugar Land Police Department catch their man. As a result, he approached Detective Marshall Slot with the idea of wearing a wire and engaging Bart in conversation about their murder plans, and to nail Bart somehow for the actual murders of his family members. It would be a risky and tricky proposition. Hipp feared for his own life and for those of his family members, but he realized he could no longer sit by idly. He later admitted, “It was worth it to me…[because] I know nothing would ever justify what I did or had listened to, instead of trying to convince him otherwise.”
Hipp and Detective Slot spoke extensively and specifically as to how they planned on setting up Bart. Slot told Hipp that he was only to contact Bart in the detective’s presence. The reason being, so Slot could properly set up the recording equipment to capture the conversations between the two young men. Slot also provided a cheap Motorola cell phone to Hipp to use for the recorded conversations. The only people who knew about the phone were Hipp and Slot. Bart would be the only other person with that phone’s actual phone number.
In addition to the technical aspects of the setup, Slot and Hipp worked on exactly what Hipp would say to Bart to get him to admit to the previous conspiracy to murder his family, but also to the actual killings themselves. Slot intended for Hipp to script out his various conversations, and he expected the young man to practically know the scripts by heart. Slot made sure to have several key bullet points emphasized, in case Hipp screwed it up, so he could still manage to hit the high points in their conversations. The plan was for Adam to reestablish his friendship with Bart. It was also the intention to make Bart uneasy, as he would know Hipp probably knew what had happened to his mother and brother based on their original plans.
The first two calls between Hipp and Bart occurred on January 10, 2004. Hipp called Bart, who returned his call. The initial conversation was simply for Adam to let Bart know that the detectives had contacted him, and they wanted to know what he knew about Bart.
The squeeze was on.
The third phone call took place one month later, on February 10, 2004. This call entailed Adam telling Bart that the Sugar Land Police Department detectives contacted him again and that they now wanted to meet with Hipp in person to discuss the murders and learn everything they could about what he knew.
The goal was to get Bart to admit that he had employed Hipp years earlier in a failed attempt to murder his family. Hipp would talk about certain aspects of the actual murders and then try to relate them to what they tried to do on the earlier failed attempts.
While Bart never overtly admitted to killing his parents, or of devising a plan to do so, he did ask Adam to lie for him to the police, to discredit their earlier accomplice, Justin Peters.
During the third phone call, Adam informed Bart that he wanted some money for his compliance. This was at the behest of Detective Slot, who instructed Adam that “the tone of the conversations needed to be a little bit more aggressive and demanding.” By the end of the third phone call, Adam convinced Bart to pay him $20,000. Bart agreed, but he informed his old friend that he would have some difficulty gathering the money on such short notice. Bart told Adam that he would send him what he could,
and that the amount would only be $200.
Ironically, during this third phone call, Bart asked Adam if he would be willing to wear a wire when he had a conversation with the detectives. Bart wanted to hear firsthand what the detectives knew about him. Adam agreed to do it for Bart. “It was to establish my credibility with Bart that I was doing what I could for him, and to show that I had done exactly as he’d asked.” Hipp and Detectives Slot and Billy Baugh would actually, later on, set up a fake interview in Adam’s living room so he could take the recorded conversation back to Bart.
During the third phone call, Adam noted Bart’s controlling behavior: “He was always interested in trying to manipulate whatever he could to serve his personal interests above anybody else’s. I take that as, ‘You know what you need to do, and you know that you don’t need to say anything.’ He would consistently speak within layers. It was never just a surface type of suggestion with him.”
33
March 10, 2004
The UPS Store
Preston Road
Dallas, Texas
Detective Marshall Slot had every intention of using Adam Hipp as much as he could against Bart Whitaker. One more avenue came in the guise of attempting to frame Bart by using a post office box (POB) in Dallas. As Adam began to let Bart know that he was onto him and that he wanted a little hush money, Slot felt as if he had Bart right where he wanted him. He figured the next logical step would be to set up a POB so he could catch Bart making physical transactions with Hipp in order to pay for his silence.
Adam agreed to the scheme and set the plan in motion by acquiring a box at The UPS Store in Dallas, in the general vicinity of Chase Bank, where Hipp worked. Slot contacted Detective Marshall Bearor, of the Highland Park Police Department, who would oversee any transactions that took place at the POB inside The UPS Store.
Hipp told Bart about the POB and said that he should send the money to Hipp as quickly as possible. Thus, the “blackmailing” of Bart Whitaker had begun.
Savage Son Page 16